Norway: NRK introduces international juries to Melodi Grand Prix 2017

It was a tough year for Norway in Eurovision, failing to qualify to the final for the first time since 2011. NRK has decided to introduce a number of international juries to Melodi Grand Prix 2017, with one clear target: winning Eurovision again in the upcoming few years.

International juries were in use in many national selections around Europe throughout the years, but so far the only country using it explicitly is Sweden, which replaced their national juries with international ones after the failure to qualify to the final in 2010. Norway has previously used international juries in 1985 and 1995 – both ended with a win to Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest.

“We are going to invite 10-12 countries to the Norwegian Melodi Grand Prix in order to choose the right song with the best possible chances to be accepted well among the international public”, says Stig Karlsen, MGP’s Executive Producer.

The president of OGAE Norway, Morten Thomassen, is delighted with this decision. “This is a recipe for success. I believe that it’s a good idea to combine the Norwegian taste with the international one and find the common denominator”

“We will qualify to the final, and win. If it will happen in 2017, 2018 or 2019 – we’ll have to see”, concludes Karlsen.

The deadline to submit songs for Melodi Grand Prix 2017 is four days from now, on 11 September. Want to submit a song? Find all the details on NRK’s website (English)

Norway achieved its latest win in the Eurovision Song Contest back in 2009, when Alexander Rybak got 387 points, a record according to the old voting system (pre-2016), singing his song Fairytale.

Stay tuned to ESCToday for more news regarding Melodi Grand Prix and Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017

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Gil is 23 years old, grew up in Israel and lives in Sweden. He began following the Eurovision Song Contest at the age of five, when the contest was held in Jerusalem in 1999. Gil joined the ESCToday team in March 2008, shortly after co-hosting the Israeli national selection that year.